The Newburgh Four

As has been widely reported, four American men are under arrest for plotting to attack two synagogues and an air national guard base in New York. Reading about the individuals involved, the picture that emerges is of a gang of uneducated, mentally unstable ex-cons, duped by an informant desperate to get himself out of hot water with the federal government. TPM has the best run down, including links to major MSM articles.

Although this is a case of domestic terrorism, I see a several parallels between the men arrested in Newburgh and the suicide bombers and Jihadi that are fighting in Iraq and Af-Pak. In both cases, the foot soldiers of terror come across as uneducated and brainwashed, not sure of what they are fighting for or against, but committed to their adopted cause thanks to a frail and often manipulated understanding of Islam conveyed by more intelligent individuals.

There are lessons to be learned from this correlation. Instead of seeing the War on Terror through the lens of a black and white struggle for freedom, maybe we should instead see it as a fight against the David Cromities of the world--men who have little to live for and an axe to grind against societies they feel have failed them.